Starline rifle brass

R

reynolds357

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Anyone used it? Had any problems with it?
I just loaded up some 270 Win with it. Used my old proven load that runs great in Norma, R.P., Winchester, Federal, and Hornaday brass. First one I shot, blew primer and laid a heck of a mark on extractor. Backed off a grain and a half. Didnt blow primer, but left a faint extractor mark. New primer will go into primer pocket by hand and fall out when brass tapped with finger.
I have observed pressure difference between brands, but no where near this extreme.
???
 
It's thicker brass so it will have a decreased case volume. I know a few guys that use it in the creedmoor and like it. You're lucky the bolt held up. This is why, no matter what, you change a component, you reduce the load.

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nhyrum said:
It's thicker brass so it will have a decreased case volume. I know a few guys that use it in the creedmoor and like it. You're lucky the bolt held up. This is why, no matter what, you change a component, you reduce the load.

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Weird thing is this load is not a hot load if it were close to max, I would have backed it down.
 
I have used it in .260 Rem and 6.5 Grendel with no issues. Just necked up 100 of the Grendel cases to .30 cal and ran some pretty hot loads through the 30 BW pushing a 115 gn bullet at about 3000 FPS and had no problems
 
hounddawg said:
I have used it in .260 Rem and 6.5 Grendel with no issues. Just necked up 100 of the Grendel cases to .30 cal and ran some pretty hot loads through the 30 BW pushing a 115 gn bullet at about 3000 FPS and had no problems
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I have myself used their .224 Valkyrie brass with no issues. This .270 stuff is insane. This is much more drastic than switching between commercial and Lake City .308.
 
I have it 357, 44Spl, 44Mag, 45 Colt, and 300 HAM'R. Tougher and thicker than Fed and Rem. I do have a bunch of WW and Hornady in my other cartridges and like them, too.
 
Great brass ... I have a bunch of 357 brass that is in the teens regarding reloads. I also snagged 200 45-70 brass a few weeks back. Very well made and should handle many reloads.
 
I’ve only had one time I had an issue with it. In my 6.5 CM with RE16 I started at the recommended minimum and within less than a grain was starting to see some pretty high velocity and just over mid load extraction was noticeably difficult so I quit at that point. Upon getting home and checking closer was seeing other signs of high pressure and the last load I shot at mid range all the primer pockets were no good. At this point I finally laid my hands on some H4350 and there was no going back. Since then I have half a dozen cycles on them with no issues.
 
reynolds357 said:
Anyone used it? Had any problems with it?
I just loaded up some 270 Win with it. Used my old proven load that runs great in Norma, R.P., Winchester, Federal, and Hornaday brass. First one I shot, blew primer and laid a heck of a mark on extractor. Backed off a grain and a half. Didnt blow primer, but left a faint extractor mark. New primer will go into primer pocket by hand and fall out when brass tapped with finger.
I have observed pressure difference between brands, but no where near this extreme.
???
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I prefer Winchester for the 270 - I have not used Starline for that cartridge.
I do use Starline's 5.56x45 brass and like it. And I use Starline for 45-70, 44mag and 45acp. Funny, but the case capacity of their 45-70 is greater than Remington's, resulting in much lower velocity - I had to work back up to the desired velocity.
 
It is always good to check case capacity when using a new brand of brass - especially from the companies that you know are making their own (not rebranding) and do things differently than the rest.
At the very least, compare the weight of empty cases across a few brands, so you have at least a little bit of an idea of what you're working with.

Weird thing is this load is not a hot load if it were close to max, I would have backed it down.
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That's why the rule is what it is, instead of:
"If you change a component, always work back up from a starting load ... unless you weren't close to max."


One should also always keep in mind what they're working with. .270 Win is not a low pressure cartridge. MAP is 65,000 psi. It is not a "forgiving", "low pressure" cartridge like .444 Marlin, .30-30, or .30-40 Krag.
When a component change causes a pressure increase, it is usually far more dramatic and potentially dangerous the higher the operating pressure of the cartridge.

As chamber pressure increases, the effect of small changes are amplified and the margin of error decreases.
"Not close to max" for .30-30 is quite a bit different than "not close to max" for .270 Win.
 
FrankenMauser said:
It is always good to check case capacity when using a new brand of brass - especially from the companies that you know are making their own (not rebranding) and do things differently than the rest.
At the very least, compare the weight of empty cases across a few brands, so you have at least a little bit of an idea of what you're working with.


That's why the rule is what it is, instead of:
"If you change a component, always work back up from a starting load ... unless you weren't close to max."


One should also always keep in mind what they're working with. .270 Win is not a low pressure cartridge. MAP is 65,000 psi. It is not a "forgiving", "low pressure" cartridge like .444 Marlin, .30-30, or .30-40 Krag.
When a component change causes a pressure increase, it is usually far more dramatic and potentially dangerous the higher the operating pressure of the cartridge.

As chamber pressure increases, the effect of small changes are amplified and the margin of error decreases.
"Not close to max" for .30-30 is quite a bit different than "not close to max" for .270 Win.
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Most of what I load for is high pressure. Belted Magnums, Rum, and WSM. I have NEVER seen a drastic jump like this.
Some playing with the Chrono today is leading me to think that Hodgdons data on this load may be hot as Hades in the first place. Even though not max, everything compounding made the perfect storm.
The brass is a major factor. That brass chronos 140 fps over R.P. brass on a different load.
 
I used Starline for 6.5 CM, 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC. No problems so far. But the case capacity is slightly lower.
 
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Weird thing is this load is not a hot load if it were close to max, I would have backed it down.
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You blew a primer and expanded the case head enough so a new primer falls out.

Your load was not "near max", it was OVER max, and apparently due to the different brass used.

Understand, that while most of the time "max loads" are in the same general range, they are ALWAYS ENTIRELY dependent on the specific combination of individual components used, including the firearm.

Most of the time everything is in the middle of the bell curve, but both ends exist and sometimes we wind up at one or the other. You saw the results of getting brass at the "far end" of the curve and using your standard load.

There's nothing wrong with the brass, its just different from what you expected. You did what you usually do, and in this case, it was the wrong thing to do.

When you change anything, back off the load. When that shows safe, begin working up, again.
 
44 AMP said:
Most of the time everything is in the middle of the bell curve, but both ends exist and sometimes we wind up at one or the other. You saw the results of getting brass at the "far end" of the curve and using your standard load.
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It's interesting to look at over pressure loads in quickloads. They go from max to extremely dangerous VERY quickly. Even 45-50k psi is nothing to sneeze at. Hell, hydraulic fluid under like 1/10th that pressure can cut fingers off.

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44 AMP said:
You blew a primer and expanded the case head enough so a new primer falls out.

Your load was not "near max", it was OVER max, and apparently due to the different brass used.

Understand, that while most of the time "max loads" are in the same general range, they are ALWAYS ENTIRELY dependent on the specific combination of individual components used, including the firearm.

Most of the time everything is in the middle of the bell curve, but both ends exist and sometimes we wind up at one or the other. You saw the results of getting brass at the "far end" of the curve and using your standard load.

There's nothing wrong with the brass, its just different from what you expected. You did what you usually do, and in this case, it was the wrong thing to do.

When you change anything, back off the load. When that shows safe, begin working up, again.
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There were multiple factors going on. My load that didnt show pressure had to be reduced under starting load. Dtarting load is a sticky bolt. I told one if my friends about it and he said thats odd, I just dang near blew up my 243 WSSM using that same powder. Turned out same lot number. He used 2r3 wssm max for starting load, as he does with every other powder, and had to beat action open with hammer. Most other powders end up running about 4 grains over max for std wssm.
 
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